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PPM panel increases to 800 HH in Quebec
BBM is beefing up its Portable People Meter panel in Francophone Quebec to 800 households. The expansion will be completed during the 2005-06 broadcast year. The Francophone service launched in 2001 with 365 households and was expanded to 530 households in 2004 when BBM switched to the PPM technology. Twenty-three of the province’s major broadcasters support BBM’s service.
CMRI reveals Canucks like their TV
Canadian Media Research (CMRI)’s annual TV Quality (TVQ) Survey released its findings late last week and it seems Canucks are quite happy with TV as a medium. This year’s TVQ found that TV remains the primary source for news (+50%). For the first time in the history of the survey, however, the Internet was named by almost 1 in 10 surveyed. Other findings include:
· News, especially local news, national news and weather top all program categories that people say they are most interested in;
· CTV lead all channels in terms of viewer satisfaction; some 36% said they were ‘very’ satisfied with CTV. This is the first time a conventional channel has finished first in terms of viewer satisfaction. Other channels with high viewer satisfaction scores were Global, The Weather Network, Discovery and HGTV;
· CBC was viewed as having the best national news, while CTV was considered a leader in terms of local news; CTV has taken over the leadership position from CBC as being the most trusted source for news;
· Similar to last year, Discovery lead as the net those surveyed believed provided the best science and nature programming; A&E is reported to have the best documentary programming; The Weather Network was chosen by a large majority as having the best weather forecasts; CBC was chosen as the best network for Canadian programming;
· Interest in an instant playback feature, i.e., a digital PVR, has doubled in the past four years.
The TVQ Survey sampled more than 1600 English-speaking Canucks, aged 18+ in October-November 2005.
OLN looks at outdoor mysteries
The Outdoor Life Network is premiering the new 10-part series Outdoor Investigations next month. The show takes a look at a large range of outdoor phenomena including: shark attacks, poaching, and shipwrecks. The premiere episode investigates a $400 million dollar grow-op in California’s Sequoia National Park. Outdoor Investigations airs beginning Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m.
TSN and CTV to air figure skating in HD
TSN and CTV will present the figure skating championships in High Definition (HD). Beginning this Thursday, the event will mark the first time Canadian figure skating has been presented in HD. The championships will kick off with the women’s short program competition and the pairs short program on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. on TSN and TSN HD.
RMB names new communications director
Sheila Mudrick has stepped into the newly-created communications director position at the Radio Marketing Bureau. Mudrick has 20 years experience in the marketing communications field, most recently within the Ontario College system.
Falcon Beach to boast bods, babes, and now, brands
Seems Global’s not the only brand banking on the hotness of Falcon Beach. The new, Canadian drama has scored General Motors’ brands, Pontiac, Cadillac and Buick to appear alongside hot bodies in hot locales throughout its first season, 13-episode run.
‘We saw this as a unique opportunity for a range of GM brands,’ explains Hugh Dow, president of M2 Universal, the agency behind the deal. ‘We wanted a
New look on tap for CBC News
In a move to net more eyeballs, CBC News is revamping. Beginning January 9, CBC News will unveil new graphics, colour scheme and five-tone mnemonic. The changes were done in a bid to make CBC’s news package more cohesive across all platforms, says John Bozzo, executive director, communications at CBC. ‘People didn’t have a sense of what CBC had to offer so CBC News [and its look and feel] will be under one umbrella across all platforms so that various media (web, radio and TV) won’t be branded differently.’ The news’ new look is under tight wraps, though Bozzo says that later this week will see the beginnings of a national advertising campaign (created internally) inviting folks to tune in on January 9. OOH executions include billboards, transit shelters, Esso gas pump screens, radio stations, as well as online. A national print campaign is also on tap across all major dailies plus The Globe & Mail and The National Post.
Last year, the net commissioned a survey using 1200 Canucks to glean what consumers were looking for in Canada’s news media. Respondents fired back that CBC was seen as ‘not cool’ and ‘for older people.’ Though Bozzo says, ‘there are no plans to dumb down the news,’ the net is hoping to not only retain its core news audience (45-65 year-olds, skewing male), but also to attract 25-54s who are currently not watching CBC News. The launch is timely: CBC chose to launch during a federal election period – a time guaranteed to net more eyeballs.
The five-week media campaign was done by MBS, with all new branding and creative done in-house.
Winnipeg transit ad biz goes to Pattison
The City of Winnipeg has awarded Pattison Outdoor to sell and service transit ads on the city’s buses as of January 1. The five-year deal includes ads on the interior and exteriors of the 500-bus fleet. The biz was last held by Viacom.
Motorola poised to trump satellite radio with wireless mobile radio offering
Just when you think satellite radio’s beginning to heat up. In the U.S., Motorola announced plans to launch iRadio later this year. The subscription-based radio service – to be made available via mobile phones – will hold 435 commercial-free radio channels for about half the price of the monthly fee of satellite radio providers. Content providers signed on to iRadio include Clear Channel, which is slated to provide 75 channels as well as syndicated programming. Heck, (actor and Angelina Jolie throwaway) Billy Bob Thornton will even produce an indie artist channel. iRadio uses wireless technology and, as such, folks can use their cells to download content for home or car stereo playback.
Nielsen Media Research Spend Trend: Federal, provincial, and municipal governments
Where do all the tax dollars go?
Not surprisingly the federal government is the biggest advertiser with the provinces and regions registering outlays commensurate with size and population. Three-quarters of total government ad spending is roughly split 50/25 between TV and dailies. Radio experienced slight gains year over year while magazines and OOH had increases in 2002 and 03 but landed with 2004 percentages on par with 2001. Overall spending peaked in 2003 but then dropped almost 27% to a four-year low in 2004.
Family Net debuts two; seeks brand sponsors for online and events properties
Family Channel is set to turn preschoolers into baby Einsteins. New preschool series Disney’s Little Einsteins will preview on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. before it drops into its regular timeslot – weekdays at 8:45 a.m., beginning February 13. The show takes little viewers on fun, musical missions using 2D animated characters. On Friday, March 17 at 6:30 p.m., the net will intro Life with Derek, a weekly 13-episode, half-hour live-action comedy targeted at 8-14s. Manager of communications Marcia Andreychuk says production on season two is about to start. ‘A great opportunity for brands to be attached to Family are [via] our off-network sponsorship opportunities [such as] Spring Break Out and Summer Chill. Last year’s Spring Break Out promo involved a cross-Canada mall tour (sponsored by Nintendo). [On our last] Summer Chill (sponsored by Kisko and Mattel) we sent a Family-branded ice cream truck across Canada, giving away freezies and ‘tester’ water toys for games of water tag at each stop,’ she says. Andreychuk also says that brands can align themselves with specific series to co-brand games or microsites. She says that past contests on family.ca have yielded more than 100,000 online entries. The site boasts one million uniques per month.
Decoder Ring preps original podcast series
Last fall, Toronto’s Decoder Ring Theatre brought a regular original audio drama series to podcasting in the form of The Red Panda Adventures. Now the company is debuting its second original series for podcast. Black Jack Justice debuts Jan. 7 and runs for six episodes. The noir-style pulp detective series is based on the play-within-a-play featured in Decoder Ring Theatre’s Fringe Festival hit of the same name. Following this run, Black Jack Justice will return in July for a further six episodes.
The programs are done in the style of the golden age of radio and therefore have a break in the middle, which Decoder Ring is hoping to fill with a sponsor, says creator Gregg Taylor. ‘What we’d really love to do is find a sponsor who’d like us to create original ‘old-timey’ advertisements, to let us do for them what Sam Spade did for Wildroot Hair Cream. But we’d certainly be interested in any sort of advertiser participation.’ Taylor says the audience comes from all over Canada and the U.S. and ranges from comics-loving university students to the original fans of old-time radio before it became old-time.
Since the launch of The Red Panda Adventures, Decoder Ring’s eps have been downloaded by more than 10,000 listeners.
http://decoderring.libsyn.com
History Channel commemorates Holocaust victims
Jan. 27 is the First Annual International Day of Commemoration to Honour Holocaust Victims, and History Television is taking part with three days of themed programming. Auschwitz: The Nazis & ‘The Final Solution’ airs Jan. 25-27 at 8 p.m. with two back-to-back hours nightly. The six-part series takes an in-depth look at the inner workings of the infamous camp where one million people died, and the mentality of its creators.
Bingo jingo. YTV gets Captain Flamingo
Among YTV’s highlights for February is a new series for younger kids. Captain Flamingo is a little-kid-turned-superhero who helps other children navigate the ins and outs of grown-up rules like eating liver. The new YTV original Canadian animated series premiers in The Zone block on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 4:30 p.m. It also airs Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
TSN tees up
It’s golf, golf, golf at TSN this year with the specialty net devoting more than 500 hours of coverage to the game in 2006. The season gets underway tomorrow with all four rounds of the Mercedes Championships. Highlights include TSN and CTV once again teaming up for the Bell Canadian Open – the only Canadian stop on the PGA Tour – and available in HD for the second year running. There will also be all four Majors – the British Open, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, and the first two rounds of the Masters, as well as three Senior Majors and two Women’s Majors, the made-for-TV TELUS Skins Game, and the biennial team tourney, the Ryder Cup.
TSN extensive golf coverage continues to draw steady viewership growth. In 2005, TSN attracted an average audience of 174,000 viewers for its golf coverage – an 11% increase over 2004. (Nielsen Media Research; All audience figures 2+).
